written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hello Mark. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well? How are the other guys of BLITZ UNION?
Mark: Hi Pix, nice to e-meet you! Thanks for having me. All good here! We are all well and alive for sure. Working on new music as usual.
Pix666: Your band is still quite new – you formed BLITZ UNION in 2019, right? Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences? What kind of music does BLITZ UNION make?
Mark: Blitz Union is a visionary EDM-Rock band which highlights alarming issues that humanity faces in today’s uncertain world along with a sense of urgency, whilst providing hope and inspiration. We started recording and releasing music in 2019. However, the story of Blitz Union began way earlier.
In fact, even during the time our parents were teenagers. After a few miraculous discoveries, signs and messages of a mysterious entity called “Mr. Blitz” started to arise. We are still learning about what it means and going to reveal first hints how those events influenced our music together with our debut album release which is on November 26th. There will be a lot to be found out by fans around Blitz Union and our story.
Pix666: Did you already play in other bands before you formed BLITZ UNION and who or what was your inspiration to become a musician?
Mark: I already played in a band before BLITZ UNION was founded. It was a pure Rock/Metal band with which I had a good time, but we were missing a direction and a common belief I think.
Concerning the inspiration of becoming a musician – I have loved music since my early childhood. My parents are both into rock music a lot, so I naturally became a huge fan of rock as well. The moment when I started to dream about becoming a musician came when I heard Linkin Park‘s “Hybrid Theory” for the very first time I think. It blew my mind.
Pix666: In a couple of days your debut album ‘Absolution’ will be released. What can fans expect and can the album already be pre-ordered, and if so, where? Are there any special versions of the album available, bundles or something like that?
Mark: The album ‘ABSOLUTION’ contains already released tracks like Plastic, Hotel India Victoria or TV (they have never made it onto a physical copy), but also new tracks which will be available only on the physical CD itself for now. We really encourage all of those who are into our Union to buy the physical copy, because there are more “easter eggs” hidden within the booklet on top of the unheard tracks. You can pre-order the album worldwide on Amazon now, once the release day is on, there will be some special bundles available on our brand new E-Shop that can be then found on our website www.blitzunion.com. Stay tuned guys!
Pix666: You have released a new video clip some months ago. What is the story behind ‘Hotel India Victoria’ and where did you shoot the clip?
Mark: Hotel India Victoria is the most disturbing and dark thing we did so far in my opinion. The idea of doing a song about HIV/AIDS has been around for quite some time. It was very challenging to give the right form to it, but it turned out great I think. We knew that we had to do a great video for this song to strengthen the overall vibe. We were lucky that Michal Skorepa, the director of the video, instantly knew how to transform our vision into reality. The video was shot in a small, but cozy “Besseder Gallery” in Prague.
Pix666: Your video clips and songs have quite a lot of views. Do you look at the numbers of streams, or the views on YouTube, or do you know, for example, in which countries the people who listen to your music live?
Mark: We are super glad how Blitz Union’s community is growing online. Our label Dreamstart Music & Management is doing a great job on spreading the word of our Union. Based on the statistics which we receive it seems that we have listeners from all over the world. Which is crazy! Most of our core fans are then from Czech Republic, Russia, the US and Germany.
Pix666: How big is the fanbase in your home country and how is your band perceived there? Do they play your songs on the radio in the Czech Republic?
Mark: Czech Republic is definitely one of the core countries of our ‘Union’. So far, we’ve played most of our shows here and the recognition is developing fast. We are glad & humble that we can cooperate with one of the most talented people in here, like the video director Michal Skořepa, who worked with us for example on the video for Plastic and Hotel India Victoria as mentioned in my previous answer. Getting a song in the rock-metal genre into a Radio rotation is a challenging thing here, same as everywhere around the world I think. Our songs are played here and there, but it is not the main media which brings new fans of our ‘Union’ for sure.
Pix666: Where do you get the ideas for your songs and how do you generally create your songs? Is there a certain plan? Who in the band is responsible for what?
Mark: The origin of Blitz Union’s songs is based on a specific communication between me and the mysterious entity “Mr.Blitz”. Once I understand, once I feel what theme/story I should implement into a song, I start to compose a simple instrumental. If the whole band likes the overall vibe of the idea, we all start to work on the general arrangements together. Once the main structure of the song is done and agreed, Schtorm (bassist, producer) starts to work on the final production of the song.
Pix666: For a relatively new band your music already sounds very ‘grown up’ and also ‘international’. Do you have a team around you that supports and helps you?
Mark: Thank you! To develop the Blitz Union sound definitely took some time. On our first EP “Revolution”, we made it more electronic and did quite some editing, quantizing of the live instrumentation, etc.. On the “Absolution” album, we’ve tried to do the opposite – we let the instrumentation more raw and didn’t clean stuff that much.
We are delighted how it turned out actually – it is wild, organic, punchy, but still electronic. The most important step was to build our own studio. This helped us to spend much more time with each song and that really paid off – we were able to try more directions and experiment here and there. Last but not least our collaboration with exceptional producer Dino Medanhodzic was the gamechanger here. He shaped the songs the way nobody would expect it!
Pix666: Were you allowed to play concerts during the pandemic, or did everything have to be postponed? Do you already have plans for concerts around the time of the album release?
Mark: The tour/show opportunities which we had for the last two ‘pandemic years’ were smaller festivals and summer tours across Czech Republic alongside the popular Czech rock band SKWOR and we enjoyed it a lot. We won a lot of new members to our Union there.
The only show date for next year which I can tell you about already is the official album release show, which will be held in Prague on February 5th. We cannot wait to get back on stage in full force, as for Blitz Union live performances are the biggest passion and reward. They are my personal strongest motivation for doing music. It is like therapy for me. You can go wild, do anything you want and leave everything else behind.
Pix666: Social media and music streaming are both a blessing and a curse for bands. From your point of view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this development for your band. How much do BLITZ UNION use social media and where are you represented?
Mark: Since the beginning of the “Age of Corona” social media and the online world in general became basically the only place where bands could present themselves and interact with their fans. So I see it as a big advantage now. Also you can easily reach people all around the globe. But on the other hand, the easier you can promote your work to the world, the harder it is to stand out among all the quantum of other bands and artists. But in general, I think the online world has opened a lot of new opportunities to build your band-art. We use social media a lot in order to spread our word, our story, our music.
Facebook: Blitz Union – https://www.facebook.com/BLITZUNION/
VK.com: Blitz Union – https://vk.com/blitzunion
Instagram: blitzunion – https://www.instagram.com/blitzunion/?hl=de
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/BlitzUnion
YouTube: Blitz Union – https://www.youtube.com/channel/BlitzUnion
Pix666: How can fans support you and your music besides going to your concerts? For example, is there cool merch from BLITZ UNION to buy?
Mark: I like this saying “Every action counts”. We truly appreciate any kind of even the smallest action. So people can support us “just” by listening to our music, sharing their thoughts and feedback with us, telling about Blitz Union to their friends, families for example. But direct support as buying some piece of our merch is more than welcome as well of course! You can check our products on www.blitzunion.com.
Pix666: Do you have any other news about the band or some interesting personal things about you that you would like to share with the fans?
Mark: The current hot topic in our Union is the release of our debut album ‘Absolution’ which will be on November 26 already. We can’t wait for the first feedback/reviews and we hope people will enjoy listening to the songs as much as we did creating them. To everyone who is interested in Blitz Union and would like to know more, do not hesitate to reach out to us directly on our social media. We would be more than happy to answer all your queries.
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck with the album and stay healthy!!!
Mark: Thanks so much for having us. All the best. Stay loyal.
SPIRIT.VISION.POWER.DESIRE.ACTION
https://www.facebook.com/BLITZUNION
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